Excavated Documents from the Wooden Seated Bhaisajyaguru Buddha of Donghwasa Temple, Daegu

These are seven types of documents recovered from inside the wooden seated image of Bhaisajyaguru Buddha, one of the wooden seated Buddha triad of Sakyamuni, Amitabha and Bhaisajyaguru enshrined in the Daeungjeon Hall of Donghwasa Temple, Daegu. The hall was rebuilt in 1725, and the seated images of the Buddhas of the Three Generations were made and enshrined in 1727 (the third year of King Yeongjo); the consecration ceremony for placing sacred contents inside the statues was carried out at the same time as their production, and votive texts were recovered from each of the three Buddhas. Twelve types of material were found inside the Sakyamuni Buddha, six inside the Amitabha Buddha, and the largest number, 32 types, inside the Bhaisajyaguru Buddha. Of these, the items bearing a colophon date range from 1417 (the seventeenth year of King Taejong) to 1725 (the first year of King Yeongjo), while those without a printing record date from the mid-Goryeo period to the late Joseon period, most of them predating the making of the Bhaisajyaguru image. Among the documents recovered from the Bhaisajyaguru image, fascicles 4 to 7 of the Lotus Sutra are one of four sets printed in 1417 (the seventeenth year of King Taejong) by Lady Bak, holder of the title Lady of Hamyang County, and others, for the deliverance of their deceased parents. At the left edge of the illustrated frontispiece (byeonsangdo) preceding fascicle 4 is an inscription recording that a certain Lady Jeong hired a painter to produce the frontispiece and had it carved and circulated in order to pray for the rebirth of her deceased husband, of the Wang clan, in the Pure Land; this inscription reveals the circumstances of the frontispiece's production. It is a valuable source for the study of popular Buddhist faith in the early Joseon period and for bibliographical research. The Sutra of the Fundamental Vows of Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha, according to its postscript and an ink-written colophon, is one of seven copies printed in 1481 (the twelfth year of King Seongjong) from woodblocks carved in 1474 (the fifth year of King Seongjong) at Gyeonseongsa Temple, at the order of Queen Ansun, second consort of King Yejong, of the Han clan [recorded as: "respectfully dedicated by Queen Dowager Inhye, Lady Han, for the repose of the soul of her foster grandmother, Lady Kim, wife of Sin Suk-hwa"]. It is an important source not only for the study of early Joseon Buddhist history but also for publishing history, since the date and motive of printing and the number of copies are all clearly recorded. Fascicle 1 of the Zhenyuan edition and fascicles 25 and 63 of the Zhou edition of the Avatamsaka Sutra (Flower Garland Sutra) are bound in accordion-fold format, 24 lines of 17 characters folded every six lines, and are woodblock prints published at Haeinsa Temple. These Avatamsaka Sutra woodblocks are the very blocks that served as the base text when the Tripitaka Koreana was carved, and are presumed to have been carved relatively early, in the 12th to 13th centuries. The final fascicle of the Sutra of Unsurpassed Reliance and fascicle 94 of the Mahāratnakūṭa Sūtra, both written in silver ink on sangji (mulberry paper dyed with oak bark), are 14th-century silver-ink manuscript sutras (eunsagyeong) and serve as material for the study of sutra transcription in the late Goryeo period.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Dong-gu, Daegu

Designation

Treasure · 보물